Saying she was drugged and then brutally raped by three men last Saturday night at a popular Mahdia hotel and bar, a young woman is now calling on the police to fully investigate the attack and let justice be served.
The woman, who hails from a small Amerindian village in the region, was hospitalised after the attack. She later made a report to the police and was afterward approached by one of her assailants and another person to drop the criminal complaint and enter into a settlement but she refused.
Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament Valerie Garrido-Lowe, who has been alerted about the attack, yesterday issued a call for the police to thoroughly investigate it and for justice to be served. She said Mahdia is known as the “sin city” but it need not remain in that state.
The woman told Stabroek News that she was drugged while she her co-workers were celebrating a birthday on the premises.
The hotel and bar is being rented from its owner by a man and his sons but attempts to make contact with them proved futile. The young woman said she was raped by one of the owner’s sons, his brother-in-law and a security guard at the location.
While the details of the attack remained hazy, the young woman recalled that she was led into a room at the hotel by a son of the owner, who then took advantage of her. “I know he had sex with me but is like I can’t fight. I just deh there and can’t do nothing. I don’t want get sex with he,” the woman said from Region Eight yesterday.
She passed out and woke up later to find another man, the brother-in-law of the owner, attempting to sodomise her and she fought. “I fight he and I fight and I said, ‘No [name of the man], you not doing this to me.’ And he fighting me too and he get to do a little damage but I continue to fight he…,” the young woman said.
She claimed that a third man, the security guard of the premises, who is employed by the owner of the building, also took advantage of her and she passed out once again.
The woman, who was employed by the business for almost a year, said when she woke up in the morning, she told one of the other employees what had happened to her. She said the employee told her to have a bath and promised that she would helped her to perform her duties as she was in no condition to function.
She said she was in a lot of pain and believes that she was beaten during the sexual assaults. “I bathe and I know I had to work so I try and put on clothes and went downstairs but I sit down and the next thing I know I in the hospital,” the woman said.
The young woman spent a few hours at the Mahdia Hospital before she was released and she later reported the attacks to the police. “They [the police] tek a statement and asking me what I want happen with the matter and I tell them that I want the matter to go to court,” she added.
She indicated that one of her alleged assailants contacted her and instructed that she keep the attack “between me and he.” Also, the man who is now renting the business contacted her and offered a settlement but she refused.
Attempts to cover-up
Another employee, who has been supporting the young woman and who has since quit her job over the attack, feels that there are attempts by those involved to ensure that the matter does not reach a court.
She said officials at the hospital only handed over the medical report to the police and did not give a copy to the woman and they fear that the report would disappear. She pointed out that the report should indicate whether the woman had any drugs in her system. She has taken photographs of several bite marks on the woman’s body and two other marks that appear to be bruises which support the woman’s belief that she was beaten during her ordeal.
She has since removed the young woman from the area because of the approaches to settle the matter. “I tell she we would make them a living example because this must stop. People must stop taking advantage…,” the woman said.
She stated that the implicated security guard has approached her on several occasions seeking her assistance to persuade the victim to enter into a relationship with him but she refused.
On the night of the attack, she was present at the premises and observed that her co-worker was not acting like herself and she decided to carry her to her room. “I know that was not she because she would not drink and behave like that. So, I know something was wrong but that same security guard was telling me to leave her to enjoy herself,” the woman said.
She eventually took the girl to her room but found that the keys she had were not hers and she could not get in. By that time, the owner’s son and the security guard were with her and she was told that the keys was with another woman where the party was being held.
Though hesitant the woman said she was forced to leave the young woman at the door as it was difficult to return with her to the bar.
She asked the security guard to watch over her but upon her return she was nowhere to be found. “I start behaving bad and I cuss up and I went back to the security guard and I ask how he allow she to go. And he tell me, ‘Me ain deh to watch no f#$%ing body and if he have to f#$% she leh he f#$% she.’”
She was unable to locate the young woman but was suspicious that she was with the owner’s son. “I say is he alone will get sex with she but I didn’t think it would be three a them do that to she… is till the next morning I see she and I realise what dem do because she was just there lying unconscious. We know she was alive because she breathing but she was just lying there,” the woman recalled.
She raised an alarm and “behave real bad” before the young woman was rushed to the hospital. It was she who called in the police and attempted to temporarily shut down the business by encouraging the workers to leave the job in support of their co-worker.
“I tell them it could happen to anyone a we and that we have to stand up fuh each other…,” the woman said but she said only two others walked off the job and the others were persuaded to remain.
According to the friend, another woman was raped in the compound of the business by a former employee and the owner had ensured that the matter was reported.
However, the woman later left the area after reportedly settling the matter. “But now is he son he don’t want the matter report…” she said in reference to the owner.
The friend said the men may have plotted to drug the young woman because she was usually circumspect in her conduct and would retire to her room very early when she was not working. “They know that they couldn’t get her, no other way; because she is not like that. So dem drug she,” she stated.
Meanwhile, according to Garrido-Lowe, it is a fact that many Amerindian girls and girls who come from difficult circumstances are taken advantage of. She said there have been countless reports of rapes but most never reach the courts. “Rape and other incidents should not be covered up… People ought to speak out and many of them know what is happening but are afraid,” Garrido-Lowe said.
She said apart from investigating, the police should offer some protection to victims who are afraid of victimisation.
